


Parallel Circuits

by jeffersinning



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Absentee father, Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, Coming Out, F/M, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Mentions of Anxiety, Mentions of Character Death, Self-Acceptance, Step-siblings, diodeshipping, grace races cars or some shit, japanese ash, kalos is france, mentions of bullying, minor mention of abuse/domestic violence, one sided ships galore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:33:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27789787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeffersinning/pseuds/jeffersinning
Summary: POV: You have a crush on your best friend. your step-sister likes the same boy. You don’t want to talk about it even though you really should and rough things happen because you don’t. | high school au thing
Relationships: Citron | Clemont & Serena, Citron | Clemont/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum, Eureka | Bonnie/Masato | Max, Limone | Meyer/Saki | Grace, Satoshi | Ash Ketchum & Serena
Comments: 20
Kudos: 19





	1. Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the first steps of their family and their first step... siblings and parents

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you’re the type of person who likes to know what ships are endgame before you get too invested in a work, just PM me. i’d rather not spoil anything.
> 
> most of the instalments will be short because i don’t have this finished rn and i’m notorious for not finishing a lot of the stuff i start. i wanted to finally start posting more of my XY content though especially since Diodeshipping day is later this week and this ship has a special place in my heart.
> 
> TRIGGER WARNINGS: there’s a very minor mention of abuse/domestic violence along w absentee parent in the paragraph towards the end that starts with “And Meyer was nice”. the last paragraph has a mention of a previous character death.

It wasn’t like she didn’t know who he was before their parents started dating. There had been mentions of a son the same age as her through her mother after she’d returned from a night in the city with the mysterious man she’d been seeing, but never any other indications of identity. Looking back at it though, as hints were revealed, awkward chance encounters had become more common. On the night that Grace had decided to have her mysterious boyfriend and his kids from the city over for dinner, Serena finally locked eyes with said boy and couldn’t even count how many times they’d bumped into each other or crossed paths in the last few months of school.

“Clemont?”

He looked like a deer in the headlights, obviously not desiring this kind of confrontation. Their parents looked puzzled, blue and brown eyes darting back and forth between one another.

“You two know each other?” Meyer was the first to speak up, eyebrows furrowed. “Clemont said he didn’t know Serena when I asked him.”

She decided to do him a solid, considering she was the one who instigated this conversation. “Oh, well we know of each other from classes, but not anything more.” Serena explained, the confused expressions on their parents faces lifting. Clemont looked relieved.

The dinner went fairly smoothly. Serena had spent the time leading up to it helping her mom prepare the meal, so it was all ready by the time Meyer and his kids arrived. Serena and her mom lived alone, but had insisted on a four-person table with two extra chairs upon moving in years ago. The other chairs didn’t get much use, but Grace liked being prepared for the off-chances like these that required their use.

Moving to Kalos had been a lot for eight-year-old Serena to deal with, but nearly six years later, she was glad that it happened. They had relocated to Kalos for sports car racing, which her mother was fairly well-known for doing. She retired from racing a long time ago, but was still very involved in the league and coaching, especially when it came to promoting the sport to those who faced discrimination in the male-dominated field. The interest hadn’t caught on to Serena the same way, but she still enjoyed supporting her mother and attending races and events.

Meyer and her had met through this shared interest, as he was a mechanic. Their story was that apparently Meyer was so star-struck over working on Grace’s car for an upcoming showcase race, that he hadn’t even realized that Grace was the one handing him parts and tools until he had emerged from the car’s undercarriage, shocked. He had spent the entirety of the time working on the car with her talking about how much he admired her, and her mom took the initiative and asked him out on a date. Their cliché ending to the story was that the rest was history.

Serena lived through said history though, and as weird as it was for her mom to be dating, she’s never seen her mom so happy before.

And Meyer was nice, a lot nicer than Serena remembered her father being, especially after he hit her mom and walked out the door, never to be seen again. Bonnie was an extremely excitable eleven year old, and Clemont was quiet, not unlike how he was in school.

Serena had barely heard him speak before they started bumping into each other in the halls. She knew basically nothing about him, other than the fact that he was extremely smart, likely the top of their class, and that he didn’t have many friends.

Through their dinner discussion however, Serena learned many things about Clemont that she wouldn’t have ever known otherwise. Apparently he really enjoyed inventing things, having come up with a multitude of DIY solutions to problems his father came across while working. While Clemont wasn’t as interested in the excitement of racing (it made him anxious), he did find the physics of it fascinating and worked a lot with his dad to innovate car, safety and driving technology. He, with the help of his father, had apparently patented one of their new devices, which was installed in Grace’s racing car.

Clemont only quietly blushed and politely accepted the praise he received through his father’s recounting of his achievements. Serena could sense that he really didn’t want to be there, and vaguely remembered her mother telling her about what had happened to Meyer’s wife in the past. She didn’t blame him for feeling so bitter-sweet about the dinner, but she also wondered if he would open up more as their families got to know each other better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is more of like a prologue setting up the backstory and stuff. more interactions will happen next chapter though. idk shit about car racing so most of that is made up or researched.


	2. Order of Operations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> serena doesn’t know how to do calculus, and clemont doesn’t know how to talk to people

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: mentions of parent loss
> 
> collège de lumiose nord = north lumiose middle school

“I still don’t get why I have to take the derivative of this part,” Serena looked over at her step-brother, exasperated and defeated by the equation in front of her. Clemont had offered to tutor her in calculus, but Serena was soon finding that she wasn’t quite cut out for the mathematical problem-solving that the subject demanded. They were seated in the school library during lunch hour and Clemont was biting his lip, eyes scanning over the equation in question.

It had been almost three years since the dinner with their parents. In the past three years, Grace and Meyer had gotten married, making Clemont, Serena and Bonnie step-siblings. Serena and Grace moved out of their home in the suburbs and into Meyer’s apartment in the city, which was a welcome change for Serena. Though their space was just a bit tight, Serena loved having the city at her doorstep, without having to take the commuter train in or deal with traffic and parking if they drove. She was still in the same school district too, so there was no issue with transferring. Bonnie loved having an older-sister figure around, and Serena had grown much closer to Clemont than she’d ever imagined she would.

While she would consider their relationship as close friends, there were still some things Clemont just wouldn’t open up to her about. While Serena had attended nearly every school dance since middle school, Clemont refused to even speak about them. His sister teased him about finding a girlfriend at least a few times a week, which only resulted in an agitated Clemont that Serena had learned to leave alone for at least an hour after.

There were also holidays, where any mention of Clemont and Bonnie’s late mother would set the older boy off, plunging him into a sad and distant state. Serena had ended up asking her mom about this once, and Grace explained how she had some medical condition that she ended up passing away from when the siblings were a lot younger. Meyer had told her that Clemont and his mom were extremely close before that, and her death had really upset him, to the point that he’s had to see someone about it a few times.

Despite some of the sensitive things, most of the things their parents’ new relationship brought were positive. Clemont would help Grace with cooking meals, while Serena and Bonnie would make desserts and sweets together that everyone enjoyed. They would all go to races together, and Meyer would make sure that they would have good seats. Serena could confidently say that her Kalosian has improved ten-fold since moving in with Meyer, Clemont and Bonnie.

“You have to do the same thing to both sides,” he explained to her, adjusting his glasses. “Otherwise the equation won’t be equal.”

Serena cursed herself for her stupidity. “Oh right, obviously,” she laughed sheepishly, beginning to work her way through the problem. Clemont returned to his own work, typing numbers into a calculator and jotting down notes. Serena stopped halfway through, something else having popped into her mind.

“Are you planning on going to prom this year?”

Clemont was caught off guard by this, his head snapping up at Serena’s question. His cheeks were flushed slightly red. “Serena? We can’t— that’s just... weird, and isn’t it in a long time anyways?”

She laughed at the realization of what her question sounded like, which only darkened Clemont’s blush more. “No! I’m not asking to go with you, I’m just asking if you were considering going at all.”

A librarian shushed them, and they both mumbled their apologies before returning to the discussion at hand.

“Oh. Well, no, I don’t plan on it.” He typed away on his calculator more, before hitting clear and trying to type the same numbers again. His answer didn’t seem genuine, and based on how distracted he seemed, he was probably less sure than he was letting on.

“Clemont,” she whined, giving him puppy-dog eyes. “It’s our senior prom! You haven’t gone to any of the school dances since I first met you.”

His lip quivered like he wanted to tell her something, before continuing to try to work. Serena sighed, staring down at her half-finished equation. “I guess we won’t have any cute double-date photos. I was thinking of asking Ash if he wanted to go with me, considering he probably wouldn’t ever think of asking anyone himself. And so many other girls are probably going to want to ask him, so I need to think of my promposal soon.”

Clemont, who had been sipping his water bottle, fell into a near-choking fit, coughing a few times before removing his glasses to wipe his watery eyes. His face was red as he tried clearing his throat, replacing his glasses on his nose. “Y-You want to ask Ash?”

Ash was one of Clemont’s few friends, and their friendship was one that Serena didn’t completely understand. Ash was the school’s star soccer player, and turned the social hierarchy of the school on its head when he transferred from Kanto five years ago. Despite his popularity, Ash was friends with what seemed like everyone at the school, but he and Clemont had a special friendship. Clemont tutored Ash sometimes, but it was similar to how he tutored Serena— out of their friendship and less of a professional relationship. They spent a surprising amount of time together, accounting for Ash’s busy athlete schedule, and sometimes Clemont even helped him when he was training— one of the only occasions you would find him in a gym. Ash was interested in racing and science, even if he didn’t understand either very well, and was thoroughly amazed by all and any of the work that Clemont did for Serena’s mom.

Serena and Ash though... was a less established relationship. They were acquaintances at most, and Serena sometimes tagged along with Bonnie, Ash and Clemont, the four of them going to movies and spending some time together. She had a crush on the Kanto boy since he first got in the hearts of those at Collège de Lumiose Nord. Like the adoration he received from many of the other girls at the school, Serena figured hers was obvious enough that it wouldn’t be a shock when she mentioned her thoughts to her step-brother. She was wrong.

“Something wrong with that?”

He hesitated for nearly a minute. There was obviously something he wasn’t telling her. Perhaps Ash was actually thinking about asking someone else? Maybe someone else had already asked him? The bell rang, and she withdrew her question.

“Actually, you can tell me about it later,” she said with a smile, pushing her fears out of her mind. “Sorry for putting you on the spot about it.”

Serena got up, collecting her belongings and pushing her seat in, giving her step-brother a wave before heading off to her next class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i used to be a slut for being super specific about what languages people were talking in but it feels annoying to do but if you’re like me and really care for the most part it’s a combination of french/kalosian and english/i-guess-it’s-galarian-now-instead-of-unovian. i have deep lore headcanons about everyone’s preferred/first languages that probably make it more clear but i’m not gonna bore you if you don’t want it lol.
> 
> ash being the charismatic champ he is and being friends with absolutely everyone in school is my life blood but also being extra best friends w clemont?? yes
> 
> and damn serena being perceptive but not perceptive enough. i realized she would theoretically live in the southern suburbs of lumiose city if we just rename paris so going to a middle school in the north of the city doesn’t make a lot of sense but lol just roll w it


	3. Ash Ketchum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clemont can’t stop thinking about Serena’s near-confrontation, and a certain boy from Kanto is not helping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy diodeshipping day!! have some cute interactions from our boys even tho clemont is suffering

He was late to his next class, but the teacher liked him enough that she had let it slide. Clemont ignored the glares of his classmates as he took his assigned seat, getting out his notebook and pen. He looked at the board but nothing made it from his eyes to his brain. All he could think of was Serena’s revelation.

He should have seen it coming. Clemont was painfully aware of all of the girls at school that shot passing glances at his friend, who was so dense when it came to relationships and love that none of them were received. Even Serena acknowledged the phenomenon. He even saw the boys at school that would view Ash and himself walking through the halls together with jealousy, and he’d occasionally catch them with expressions that had the same dreamy longing of the girls at school.

Clemont could only offer small, sad empathetic nods to those few. He didn’t know how he got to be so lucky that Ash even willingly spoke to him, since most people didn’t unless they wanted homework help. And he was beyond terrified to let anyone know that he had dreams of more than a friendship Ash.

Yeah, Clemont had a hopeless crush on his best friend. Apparently his step-sister did too. Awkward didn’t even begin to describe it.

“Excuse me, Mr. Lueur?”

Clemont was yanked from his thoughts, staring sheepishly at the teacher and offering a quiet apology. She scowled and repeated her question, and he stammered for a moment before answering it correctly. The lecture continued, and so did Clemont’s worrying.

-

Clemont avoided going back home after school solely to avoid encountering Serena. His strategy for doing so included going along with Ash to run errands for his mom, and trying to think about literally anything else. But it was hard when he was less than three feet away from the problem, and the Kanto boy was as clueless could be about Clemont’s current predicament.

The two of them walked through the streets of Lumiose City, Clemont clutching his backpack straps as they headed to the Eastern-Region specialty grocery store to pick up ingredients for Ash’s mom. Ash was rambling on about how she was going to cook a traditional Kantonese meal, and that none of the other grocery stores around had the right kind of ingredients.

“My mom makes the best okonomiyaki,” Ash rounded a corner, looking back at his friend who was trailing behind him. “Have you ever had it? What are you doing for dinner tonight? You should come over!”

Clemont was usually used to the amount of pure energy that Ash had, but he had been thrown off so much from earlier that he could barely process what Ash was saying. He blinked confusedly at his friend.

“You lost me at o... oko... uh...”

“Okonomiyaki? It’s like this savory pancake that you put whatever meat you want in it, and then there’s this brown sauce on it, some mayonnaise, katsuobushi and aonori _.  _ You absolutely have to try it though— and it has to be fresh, it’s not as good reheated.”

Ash’s love language was at least fifty percent food. He had introduced Clemont to Kantonese food when they first became good friends. The blond had had sushi before, but not nearly any of the amazing dishes that Ash’s mom has made for them over the years. He was still clueless about most of the Kantonese words that Ash would say when he was excited or talking about food, but he was slowly learning, occasionally going on bouts of research to try to relieve himself of ignorance. Going out for ramen after school every couple of weeks or so was a ritual the two had been doing since forever, despite the protests of the soccer coach.

Ash lived alone with his mom, in a small apartment a few blocks away from Clemont’s house. The first time Clemont met Ash was when the Kantonese boy barreled into him in the hall, exclaiming apologies in a mix of Kantonese, Kalosian and Galarian. As an apology, Ash offered to take Clemont to ramen, which was odd to the Kalosian boy, but probably one of the best things that had happened to him in his life. Ever since then, the two had just become better friends.

“Katsuobushi are like these flakes made of dried and smoked tuna and aonori is uh... Clem, are you okay? You seem like... off.”

“Huh?” Ash stopped in his tracks, and Clemont nearly walked into him. “I-I’m fine,” he lied, avoiding Ash’s eyes.

“You don’t seem fine.”

For someone so dense, Ash was surprisingly perceptive when his friends weren’t feeling well. The rest of his love language was a combination of affirmation and quality time. The Kantoian’s deep brown eyes were full of concern, not helping Clemont’s situation.

“I’m just hungry.” The lie came off of his tongue a lot easier than he would have liked it to. “You keep talking about food.”

Ash’s expression brightened, the lie working on him. “Are you able to come over for dinner?”

Grace mentioned something about making homemade macaroni and cheese sometime this week for dinner, but Clemont figured that the longer he could avoid going home, the more likely Serena would forget about their conversation from earlier. He was willing to give up mac and cheese night to avoid the confrontation.

“Let me text my dad, but I probably can.”

The grocery store came into view, and Clemont followed Ash in. The black haired boy made a beeline to where the ingredients he needed were, and Clemont waited near the register, pulling out his phone and immediately opening his messaging app, which had been a mistake.

_ Serena: Can we talk later? _

The blond sighed, closing that conversation and opening the thread with his dad. He knew there would be a read receipt on Serena’s message, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now.

_ Me: I’m going to have dinner at Ash’s tonight. _

He went back to the thread with his step-sister, staring at it stupidly. What was he supposed to say? It was a yes or no question.

He noticed someone waving out of the corner of his eye, as Ash entered a checkout line. Clemont tucked his phone away, deciding to just respond later, and watched as Ash animatedly spoke with the cashier in Kantonese, before giving them a wave and turning to Clemont.

“I got a box of Pocky to share after dinner too,” Ash said, motioning to his bag. “Uh, I mean, you can come right?” Clemont nodded.

“Yeah, my dad said it’d be ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love cultural differences in pokemon!! idk anything about japanese food besides what’s popular in the west tho so i googled stuff about the dish ash’s mom was making


	4. Addition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Serena gets left on read by Clemont for hours and Bonnie seeks dating advice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: bullying mentioned

Serena hadn’t been very happy when Meyer told them that Clemont was going to Ash’s for dinner. No amount of her mom’s homemade mac and cheese with breadcrumbs on top could make her feel much better about it. After dinner she holed herself up in her room, frowning at the read receipt on the text she’d sent to him earlier.

_ Me: Can we talk later? _

He’d read it hours ago, and it was late and he was not back yet. They had classes tomorrow, but Clemont was notorious for staying up late engulfed in his work so all-nighters and sleep deprivation were nothing for him. Still, Serena was really worried that she’d upset him somehow, and she didn’t want to sour their relationship at all.

She did bother him about the one thing he never liked anyone mentioning. And maybe she was asking for it, but even then, it’s been three years since they became family and conversations between her and Clemont were still mostly impersonal. They were siblings and they were friends, but mostly on a surface level, despite spending a lot of time together. They didn’t have a lot in common, she would admit that much. He didn’t care too much to hear her talk about new episodes of dramas she watched, nor did she understand when he started rambling on about inventions.

There was one time last year when their parents were away on a racing trip and Clemont came home with one of his inventions in pieces. He brought it to school to show the physics teacher that he was close with due to their shared interests in innovation and racing. When she asked him about what happened, Clemont initially ignored her, and after she bothered him about it he told her about some kid that was always messing with his stuff.

They had a long conversation where Clemont confided in Serena about how he was dealing with bullying at school. She said he shouldn’t put up with it and suggested he talk to a teacher about it, and he agreed and said he would. After that it seemed like it had been resolved for him. She was glad that she could help, but part of her still wondered why they still felt like acquaintances.

There was a knock on her door, and she turned off her phone and set it on the bed.

“Serena? Can I come in?”

Bonnie’s voice rang through her door, and Serena called out a ‘yes’ in response. The blonde girl appeared in the doorway, closing the door behind her as she went to sit next to Serena on her bed. She looked deep in thought, blue eyes full of contemplation.

“What’s up?”

“So I told this boy that I liked him the other day.”

Serena was taken aback. Bonnie had never come to her about her own relationship concerns, and more often than not she was meddling in Clemont’s nonexistent love life. She did suppose that her step-sister was almost fourteen, and that these feelings were bound to happen. She only wished she had Bonnie’s boldness to actually confront her own crush.

“How did it go?”

She tried to picture what kind of boy would pique the interests of Bonnie, based on what Bonnie seemed to value in women for Clemont, but it didn’t translate the same. Bonnie wanted a girl that would effectively be Clemont’s mom, but Serena doubted that someone as independent and headstrong as Bonnie would want the same for herself.

“Well, he got all weird about it... Kinda like how Clemont gets when I bring up girlfriends around him, but not quite the same... He got all blushy, and then hid his face and ran away.”

“Boys do tend to be less mature than girls,” Serena offered, and Bonnie furrowed her eyebrows.

“Is that why Clemont doesn’t like to talk about girls?”

Serena raised an eyebrow at the subject change, but then it made sense. Most of Bonnie’s experience with the male gender came from her brother and her dad.

“It could be,” Serena pondered. Clemont was eighteen though, and one of the more mature boys she’s encountered in school. It was unlikely that he still thought that girls had cooties or something, but maybe not.

Clemont could be painfully shy though, and liked to keep to himself. Unlike his sister, he would likely never confront someone about his feelings, and when prompted by Bonnie’s constant reminders that he was single, would be even less inclined to do so.

Something weird had happened between when Serena first brought up prom, and when she mentioned Ash though. Something about mentioning Ash changed Clemont’s mild discomfort with the topic to actual distress.

Was it her though? Maybe the thought of her being with his best friend was something he’d never thought about before. Or maybe it was something like she had wondered before— Ash might have been thinking of asking someone else, or maybe someone else had already asked him.

Bonnie dragged her from her thoughts.

“So the boy put a note in my locker today and asked if I wanted to get galette with him tomorrow.”

“Oh, that’s so cute!”

“So at the end of the day I put a note in his locker that said yes. But I’ve been thinking, and I don’t know why I like him in the first place-“

“Bonnie? What are you still doing awake?”

Clemont appeared in the doorway, his backpack still on as he’d likely just returned from Ash’s house. Serena glanced at the clock on her nightstand— it was nearly midnight. But Bonnie seemed like she needed to talk.

“None of your business,” the younger girl said to Clemont, sticking out her tongue. He shrugged, closing the door and trudging off to his room.

“That wasn’t very nice,” Serena whispered, frowning at Bonnie.

“Yeah but he interrupted us first,” she said matter-of-factly, before letting go of the incident.

Serena had been hoping that maybe such a conversation would get Clemont to open up about his love life, and perhaps Ash’s too, but Bonnie had shut that down.

“Sometimes you can’t really explain why you like someone to begin with,” she contemplated her words more before continuing. “Give him a chance, and then think about it. The more you get to know a person the more you’ll be able to tell if you’re compatible.”

Bonnie seemed to take this information and turn it over in her hand, deep in thought like she was studying it. “Right, that makes sense Serena! Thank you, you’re so much easier to talk to about dating than Clemont!”

With that, Bonnie gave her step-sister a hug and then ran off.

Now it was her turn to go bother Clemont.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i tried having a cute science/math theme for the chapter titles but i don’t know anything about either tbh so i get super stuck trying to come up with something every time i post lol.
> 
> also SORRY i ran into a wall with this where i realized that if i want to include certain things i need to research them more and think more about how they would affect character relationships etc. i have more written for this already but i keep going back and adding/revising more as i realize how certain things don’t really make sense, etc. idk if anyone noticed but i dropped some tags bc of this since aspects of the story i was planning on happening might change ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> winter break is also nearly over so rip me and my plans to write more. this will continuously be worked on though!! idk how long it’ll take but it will.


	5. Fraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> wikihow to avoid talking about your problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fuq sorry i didn’t abandon this i haven’t written any more recently bc the promised neverland is taking up like all of my brain cells rn. i have some more chapters written but not like edited/finished so idk updates might slow down for a while esp bc rip me classes

Dinner with the Ketchum’s had been amazing, as usual. Ms. Ketchum made the best (and only) okonomiyaki that Clemont had ever tasted, and then after Ash and Clemont worked on homework with a Kantonese cartoon that they were watching together in the background. Clemont couldn’t really multitask and read the subtitles while he was working, but having it on made Ash happy, so he didn’t mind.

Once the homework was finished, they sat on Ash’s couch watching nearly ten more episodes of the show and commenting on it throughout. Ash would explain what was going on when Clemont was confused, and Clemont would mention how some of the physics and science of the show didn’t exactly make sense. They’d make fun of the characters and situations, going back and forth with inside jokes. It wasn’t until long after Ms. Ketchum went to sleep that the two realized that it was far too late to be awake on a school night watching anime.

So Ash walked Clemont home, and every step closer to his house reminded him of his impending interaction with Serena. Even the thought of coming out to anyone at this point made him nauseous.

Walking with Ash as this fear brewed in his mind didn’t help much, but it was comforting listening to Ash ramble on about theories from the show they had watched. Clemont could listen to his endearing, raspy voice all day, especially when Ash spoke about things he was passionate about. The explanation of this particular theory almost made Clemont forget about his current predicament.

Ash waved him goodbye as he entered his apartment building, walking up the stairs and into their family’s unit. Most of the lights were off except for a glow coming from underneath Serena’s door. Stopping outside, he heard his two sisters’ voices, and checked the time.

Clemont was not a confrontational person, but sometimes his big brother instincts came out without him thinking. Bonnie brushed him off though, and he was glad, because it gave him an excuse to escape to his room and pretend he was asleep before Serena tried to talk to him, despite not having done any of his nightly routine.

He appreciated Serena’s company and willingness to accept him into her life, but he didn’t want to bother her with all of his problems. He felt like it wasn’t fair to her to have to deal with things that didn’t concern her. The one time he did, it mostly made him feel worse. It took a similar confrontation with Ash to realize that the bullying wasn’t his fault, and since then he didn’t want to bring up anything to Serena since he still felt like they were his issues to deal with and not hers.

The dreaded knock on his door came, and then the glowing silhouette of a doorway with someone standing in the frame cast both light and shadow over him. Clemont was cocooned in his blankets, facing away from the door. He didn’t want to talk to her.

“Why does it feel like you’ve been avoiding me?”

Because he was.

“You left me on read like ten hours ago.”

What was he supposed to say?

“Clemont, if you need to tell me something...”

If only he could just say it. Why did he have to be such a coward?

Serena sighed and closed the door. Clemont’s room was dark again, but if it was light enough he wouldn’t be able to see anyways through the tears welling in his eyes.


End file.
